A Side of Seductive
by feverishdarkness
Summary: In which Neku and Joshua go skating. Problem is: they both suck at it. JoshuaxNeku.


**A Side of Seductive**

Knuckles white as his fingers gripped the rail beside the ice rink; Neku's stomach lurched and flopped unpleasantly in time with each awkward stomp his rented hockey skates made on the ice.

Joshua growled inaudibly under his breath as he fiddled with his hair, pretending not to be fazed by the rather tedious act of getting around the rink without, bluntly, falling on his ass. He looked disdainfully to the orangey brunet beside him, a scowl on his lips. It disappeared after a moment when he noticed the expression on his proxy's face. "Having problems, Neku?"

Neku's brow was furrowed as he stared at his feet with a glare of intense concentration marring his features. Trying to balance just while standing was already by itself an arduous task and he inwardly cringed at the added distraction that a conversation with Joshua would inevitably bring. Taking a deep, steadying breath, Neku brought his gaze up to the other's eyes. "Of course not," he scoffed, and to prove it, he took another step which barely wobbled, to his delight.

"Whatever you say," Joshua cooed and struggled to maintain his composure. He gripped the rail and smirked at Neku. "Wanna show off a move for me, my dear proxy?" he wondered, brow arching just the slightest.

Perhaps if Neku did something, he could memorize it and then pull it off himself... well, once he managed to balance himself better. God damnit, why had he allowed himself to be dragged in to this mess! Damnit.

Upon hearing the other boy's request, Neku imperceptibly stiffened, cursing Shiki's seemingly innocuous invitation to skate. Him? Show off a move? Impossible.

Neku turned his face away to conceal the rising panic that had begun to show up on his face. He inwardly debated the pros and the utterly disastrous downs that an attempt at feigning the slightest bit of competence at skating would bring him. Either way, he was bound to lose a lot of face. If, by some strange and miraculous twist of fate, he managed to pull something off, he still wouldn't be able to keep up the charade, which would lead to humiliation.

But then again, he wasn't about to let Joshua just _mock_ him.

Turning back to the Composer, Neku somehow successfully forced a confident smirk onto his face. "Just watch," came the words from his lips which were apparently moving on autopilot. Taking a deep breath, Neku prepared to push off from the wall and do _something_.

"Watching" Joshua answered in _too_ cheerful a tone. His back rested against the pole, inwardly relieved that he could rest. Having to keep his balance for such a long time and pretend to be graceful was quite the feat.

Joshua's violet eyes raked over Neku's body as the boy prepared to do whatever miraculous trick he was planning (to which Joshua would still tease him about and point over every flaw, just because he couldn't let the other one up him). A smirk appeared ambiguously on Joshua's lips as he curled his sinewy fingers around the rail behind him, messy silver hair framing his face to such an effect that he looked rather evil. Hah, Joshua evil, what a thought. "Unless, of course, you'd rather us go get something to snack on. It _is_ getting rather nippy out here," Joshua interrupted after a moment, mentally scolding himself. If Neku did something, he would have to as well and … and that would lead to Neku being better at something than him. Hmph.

If there was a way to go back in time at will and redo all of his absolutely stupid mistakes, Neku would have never, ever agreed to accompany Shiki on this ridiculous trip. He would have callously reverted back to his previous personality and said an adamant "NO. NO WAY IN HELL!" to her puppy dog eyes and persuasive cajoling. But alas, he couldn't. So he settled for mentally slapping himself upside the head. Real smart, Neku!

Now, there was no possible way for him to back out. His cocky words only served to tighten the bolts in his proverbial coffin. But then again, with all that he went through during his month in the Reaper's Game, shouldn't something like balancing on ice be a cakewalk? Right?

Neku gulped. Then he closed his eyes. Then he shoved off from the wall and sailed smoothly across the rink... a _lot _faster than he had intended to. Panicking, he dug one of the blades into the ground and by some fluke, executed a near graceful turn, sliding backwards a few feet before coming to a gentle stop. He now stood facing Joshua and the wall that was suddenly looking way too far away. "How's that?" he remembered to call out over the frantic pounding of his heart, perhaps just a few seconds late. Now he was stranded. Excellent.

Joshua watched Neku with practiced indifference. How someone could contort their body in such a way and gracefully sail across ice on two little pegs of metal was beyond understanding. It seemed irrational and quite pointless--so that's the stance he took as he watched Neku. But he couldn't help to think, in the back of his mind, how well Neku had just skated. Oh great, now the Composer was hoping the other didn't suggest he do something.

"Oh, if that's the best you can do," the silveret sighed dramatically, flippantly pushing his hair behind his ear. "Now, let's get off this ice before I freeze to death. If there's one thing I hate more than sweating, it's freezing," he chided, looking to Neku with that smug, i-always-get-what-i-want look. Without really waiting for confirmation, Joshua began making his way, slowly, along the rail, towards the small little gate that lead out of the ice ring of death.

Shivering in the dead center of the ring, Neku was fuming. After all the pain he had gone through, Joshua was just going to leave like that? Crossing his arms furiously over his chest, partly to look intimidating and partly to get warmer, Neku raised his voice to be heard over the screaming of other novice skaters, "What's the matter, Josh? We just got here. You're not going to just leave without show _me_ a couple of fancy moves, are you?" Take that, thought Neku. Briefly, he wondered about Joshua's strange reluctance to stay out on the ice. It couldn't be that... of course not.

Upon hearing the words 'the matter', the Composer bristled. Violet eyes narrowed as he gripped a bit too tightly onto the railing. Perhaps…if he used some of his powers, just this once, to fake grace-on-ice, he could get Neku to shut up and leave this confounded place.

"I don't think you're worthy of my moves, Neku," Joshua called back, giggling voice rising above the murmurs around him. "But, if you insist, I suppose I can show you a small peek of my wondrous abilities Maybe if you're nice, I'll show you more later when we're alone."

With a look that made it hard to decipher if he was being totally serious or not, Joshua carefully dug the blade into the firm ice beneath him and turned around to face Neku completely. He channeled a wave of power down through his body, propelling him forward to make it appear that he was an expert at this stuff. Trusting that his power would keep him afloat while doing a trick, the silveret lifted a foot off the ice a few inches and did the smallest of spins in the air, landing roughly on the edge of his blade. It wasn't perfect, but at least it was something. More than most of those novices could say.

Neku's teeth grinded together so hard that he was sure the sound was audible. Of course. Of fucking course. It made perfect sense that perfect Joshua would be able to do _everything_ perfectly. A familiar voice rose in the back of his head, urging him to punch the fairer boy in the face. He was tempted to listen to it for once, but stuffed it away for future reference. Joshua had shown him up and there really wasn't anything else he could do or say. Neku decided it was better to accept his defeat gracefully while he still could.

"Wondrous abilities, indeed," he sneered in a voice laced with sarcasm. God, just where was he getting this bravado from? "I guess that's decent enough for someone living in a _sewer_." He then turned to leave. "Fine, we'll get off the ice. Can't have you _freezing_, now." Okay now for the hard part: how was he going to get back?

Joshua frowned deeply at that snide 'sewer' remark. His lips formed a thin line at once, casting his gaze elsewhere. "Watch your tongue, my lovely proxy, for you might not have one for much longer if you keep saying such offensive words," he stated slowly, voice laced with venom—though it really wasn't all that deadly, considering it was _Joshua_ and anything that came out of his mouth had that smug little tone to it.

"Now, I'm in the mood for a hot cup of ramen, what about yourself?" Joshua's mood reverted almost instantaneously as he reached out and took Neku's wrist, beginning to ever so slowly lead them through the middle of the rink and towards the gate. And by slowly, that meant barely an inch a minute.

Neku slowly let out the breath that he had been holding in. He was so relieved that he even let slide Joshua's lovely little threat, though he couldn't help but retort with a "You're killing me, Josh. You're really killing me." He let the other drag him despite it being rather humiliating, but it was a better alternative to trying to go back on his own.

"Just what is with you and ramen, anyway?" he grumbled, glancing around the rink to see if he could spot the girl who was responsible for instigating his ordeal. Then his eyes widened in shock. Instead of finding Shiki, Neku discovered a very large and very out of control mess of flailing arms that was careening towards them. "Josh--!"

Joshua had been spacing Neku out for the most part until he heard his name spoken with something other than loathing. The Composer glanced back at Neku, silvery eyebrow arched rather curiously before he noticed what Neku was talking about. If it was possible for the composed, arrogant, and ghostly pale Joshua to lose any more color in his face, he did it.

"That poses a problem," he stated quickly under his breath, tightening his hold around Neku's wrist before jerking the pair of them towards the railing.

It wasn't a… complete failure, nor was it a complete success. The Composer had managed to get them out of the way of imminent doom—namely some inexperienced lady. However, Joshua wasn't quite sure if this new situation was any better. Not only had he landed clumsily against the ice, a mere foot away from the side of the rink, but he had also managed to drag Neku down with him, considering he had held onto the boy's wrist with so much vigor. And damn…now he was freezing!

Neku had landed awkwardly with half his body draped over Joshua's, his mind still reeling at the sudden transition from staring down death in the eye and hitting the hard and very cold ice. Ouch. That was definitely going to more than just bruise.

"Good work, Joshua," he mumbled as mockingly as he could into the other's thigh, turning the silveret's own words against him. "Brilliant display of technique," Neku mercilessly criticized, conveniently ignoring how it was _much_ better than what he himself could pull. Anyway, if _he_ had been the one to oh-so-gracefully drag them out of harm's way, Joshua would definitely be finding fault with _him_. He shifted uncomfortably and pushed away, trying to get off the other boy, only to loose his balance on the slippery ice, sending them back into an even more awkward tangle.

"Ah Neku, I didn't know that you were so attached to me" Joshua giggled nonchalantly as he rested his head back against the ice. After a rather dramatic sigh, the Composer attempted to stand but found it quite impossible for two reasons—one, he was horrible on the ice, and two, the beautiful Neku was sprawled across him. Hm…perhaps he should just stay here.

"I know you'd love to lay on me all day, but my body is turning numb," he cooed and leaned up to teasingly brush his lips against Neku's cheek with a wordlessly snicker.

Neku bristled violently at the kiss. The dull thudding of his heart that had slowed down somewhat from his near encounter with a human torpedo came speeding back with a vengeance. Against his will, pride and common sense, his cheeks became a darker shade of red by more than just the cold. "Who the hell wants to lay you??" he shrieked, desperation allowing him to successfully fling himself off of Joshua.

Joshua sighed and managed to maneuver himself into a sitting position on the ice. Perhaps he could slide his seated body along the ice towards the gate without standing? That sounded far safer!

"…I said lay _on_ me, Neku," Joshua giggled, hand raising to cover his mouth. "But I'm certain you've fantasized about all that stuff. Oh teenage boys and their hormones" he chimed and smirked rather knowingly before adding on, "But, you wouldn't be the dominant one, my dear proxy. You just scream 'take me' with that ass of yours."

Completely and utterly mortified, Neku's frazzled brain finally caught up with what had just escaped his mouth. "I-I…" There was so much heat in his cheeks that he felt he would explode or combust. "I-I… I WASN'T GOING TO SAY THAT!!" he hollered, with an almost pained expression on his face which he buried in his hands. The pair drew some stares. "I-I, oh _fuck_...!" He was far too horrified to even register Joshua's last... words.

"Why yes, in your rather….vulgar terms, I would be the one doing the 'fucking'." The curses sounded rather out of place from Joshua's eloquent and snobby lips, but his little 'quoting' made them seem all the more natural.

He paused, though, noticing the glares adults were giving them as their children looked on curiously. With a sigh, Joshua nonchalantly reached out and wrapped his fingers around Neku's arm once more. "Neku," he stated in an uneven tone. "People are staring."

By now, Neku's face resembled nothing more than an overlarge tomato. He stared resolutely at the ground, refusing to look at anything but his blasted skates. He had just… he had… oh gods. The same voice that had just recently recommended punching in the other boy's face started being vocal again. And again, it was very, very tempting, considering the increasingly concerned mutterings of the scandalized parents that were now dragging their spawns away. "I hate you," he said, but not with a lot of feeling.

Joshua sighed, something in his violet eyes breaking just the slightest at those words. He covered it up, though, with an indifferent shrug.

"You've voiced this before, Neku. This isn't anything new to me," he reasoned smugly and promptly pushed his free hand back against the wall, stumbling to his feet with not really much care. His hand remained tightly woven around Neku's wrist, giving it a tug to aid the other boy in standing up.

Neku let himself be dragged up without complaint, even grabbing onto the offered hand, but had missed the brief flash of pain in the other's eyes. He cleared his throat in an effort to clear the suddenly stifling air that had settled over them. "W-Well, let's go," he mumbled quickly and began trekking across the thin stretch of ice between him and freedom.

He cast one more look back at the skating rink and an eye gave a twitch at the sight of a giggling Shiki who was being twirled around by her designer friend. Neku never noticed that he had forgotten to unclasp their hands.

Joshua groaned. "Neku, I'd love it if you would keep up instead of me having to drag your dead body around here," the silveret mused histrionically as he led the orangey brunet, regardless, over to the small line of little restaurants outside the rink inside the establishment.

However, after a moment of dragging, he realized just where he was tugging the brunet from. He paused, turned on his heel, and stared down the other briefly with a massive smirk. "Oh Neku, if you wanted to hold my hand, you should have just said something" he giggled and, for asshole effect, rushed into his ex-partner's arms, giggling sarcastically.

Neku had fallen into a light stupor after exiting the rink and was violently forced back to reality with a sudden armful of a very happy Composer. "G-Gaah!!" he informed the other with calm eloquence in an excellent imitation of his partner from his third week in the game. "J-Joshua!" It appeared that the fall he took earlier had knocked away his ability to form coherent sentences without stuttering. And his ability to have cheeks the color of skin.

Joshua giggled a bit more before finally deciding to pull away, eyes twinkling with satisfaction. He finally let go of the other's hand and nonchalantly pushed his hair behind his ear, other arm hanging limply by his side.

"You can't deny that that was funny, Neku The look on your face, it was priceless," the silveret stated, fingers still messed in his hair as he eyed the other, eyes radiating amusement as they normally did when it came to his favorite 'proxy'.

His lips forming what was most certainly _not_ a pout, Neku crossed his arms over his chest, the pose more defensive than anything. "It was _not_ funny," he asserted, relishing being able to stomp ahead of his infuriating once-partner, now that those blasted skates were removed. Unconsciously, he brought his fingers over to his now unoccupied hand which felt strangely empty.

"You need to learn to take a joke" Joshua called after Neku and snickered quietly to himself before heading over to the ramen stand, hands nestled in his pockets. Really now, Neku needed to lighten up and have a bit more fun instead of spewing out words of hate every two seconds.

After ordering a large bowl of Shio Ramen, Joshua headed over to a small table near the rink, watching the skaters go by happily. Thank god there was a plastic sheet protecting the onlookers.

Neku stopped short, not having gone too far. Turning back around, he was surprised and if he were honest with himself, a little disappointed to see that he hadn't been followed. Then he berated himself for being ridiculous. Why would he even want to be around his own murderer? Despite the negative direction his thoughts were going, Neku found himself backtracking.

Soon, the skaters were in view again and he spotted Joshua eating by himself. Joshua with his cheeks reddened from the cold and hair damp from the ice looked far more human and … and likeable than he ever had. He took a step toward him, only to falter, unsure of how to approach him after his minor tantrum.

Joshua wasn't really keeping a look out for Neku, and instead concentrating on his warm meal. This was going to be the last time he ever stepped foot onto an arena of ice. Not only was his back sore and body frozen to the core, but he had a horrible, throbbing headache to contend with and slightly damp clothing and hair. Lovely...

With a dramatic sigh to no one in particular, the silveret hoisted his chopsticks in the air and brought them to his lips, tediously slurping a long strand of ramen between them with a rather satisfied look. So warm

For some reason, Neku felt himself heat up, despite the chilly air. He ducked behind a wall to avoid being accidentally spotted just standing in the middle of the road and gaping like a moron. He firmly told himself to stop being a wimp and walk over. It had just been a stupid argument anyway and it wasn't like he was really that furious at the Composer. He peeked cautiously around his hiding place in preparation to suck up his pride and resign himself to more of Joshua's taunting but his traitorous eyes affixed themselves upon the other's rapturous expression and his moist lips which were wrapped around and slowly sucking in long, thick noodle—

Blushing madly, Neku darted back to his hiding place and inexplicably feeling like a voyeur.

In between long slurps of his meal, the Composer took a sip of whatever drink he had ordered, eyes wandering to the skaters going around in a circle. They almost resembled hamsters in a wheel...how amusing.

The silveret chuckled to himself and continued eating, his sensual habits continuing as well as a soft hum. He hadn't had the chance to have ramen this good since...well, the Game, to be honest.

The spot Neku had impulsively chosen to conceal himself in, was really far too close to the person he was hiding from. Much to his chagrin, he was unfortunately near enough to have a crystal clear view of the lovely Composer and be in perfect range to hear him _hum_ around his noodles. He was horribly reminded of a certain day in the game where Joshua bought a hotdog at Spain Hill and proceeded to do something that could only be reiterated as delightedly molesting it with his tongue.

Neku blanked out, his embarrassment levels were rapidly shooting up to previously unrecorded levels, along with the temperature of his face. Just how the hell can watching someone do something as innocent and natural as _eating_ make him feel as if he were committing a crime? Shaking away the cobwebs that started to gather in his head, Neku got up with the intent of ditching the Composer and hiding under his bed.

But some higher power was obviously not in agreement with that so as soon as he made to leave, with a series of deafening crashes, he knocked over the stack of empty crates that had previously been the wall that he was cowering behind. Hello, Neku, meet Utterly Screwed.

Joshua paused from his...consumption of the fine noodles to lift his gaze. That had sounded awful, that crash. The Composer's eyes knitted together rather curiously as he set his chopstix down, noticing what had caused the prodigious sound.

A smirk played onto his lips. "Neku, aren't you a little old to be playing with blocks?" the silveret teased from the table, lacing his fingers under his chin, refusing to give assistance (because he knew Neku wouldn't take it if he offered, so there).

Neku dimly registered that he was just getting himself into one fine mess after another. His face was so hot that he could have used it to fry Taboo Noise. "S-Shut up!" he demanded, as he simply wasn't gifted with Joshua's way with words. For lack of anything better to do, he bent down to restack the crates before someone came over to yell at him.

"I-It… it was your fault, anyway!" he blurted out, not looking anywhere near Joshua's general direction. He regretted his words instantly.

Joshua blinked, obviously befuddled by those words. "How was it my fault, Neku?" he asked, a giggle following. "I was just over here enjoying my lunch, saving a seat for you once you managed to find something decent to eat," he stated innocently enough, violet eyes sparkling mischievously at the other boy.

His fingers picked the stick back up, twirling it between his thin fingers absently, his gaze not departing from Neku. God, that boy's expression was priceless sometimes.

"Well, it... ugh! Somehow, almost everything's your fault!" Neku threw his hands up in despair. "You are so--!" The orange-haired boy agitatedly smacked a hand to his forehead before wrenching the said saved seat across from Joshua out from under the table and plopped down for a good sulk. His last tattered shred of dignity would remain as long as Joshua didn't press the subject.

Then again, when had Joshua never pushed a subject towards its breaking point? "So what, Neku?" the Composer wondered smugly, placing the stick down once more to benignly lace his hands under his chin, feigning schoolgirl innocence with an overdramatic flutter of his eyelashes. A smirk tugged at the ends of his lips as he stared across the table at Neku, wearing the face of sheer arrogance.

"So--! So infuriating! And… and _stop doing that_!" Barely keeping from exploding, Neku gestured jerkily and vaguely at nothing in particular, the culmination of the day's frustration and humiliation having robbed him of his usual wit. His head spun, clogged with a confusing swirl of thoughts and emotions. The only thing that was registering with any clarity was that damned pretty boy face and an overwhelming desire to do _anything_ to wipe off that smirk.

"Doing what? I'm just looking at you. You're quite the sight, Neku," Joshua giggled, unlacing his hand temporarily. With that continuous smirk, he casually reached across the table and tucked a stray orange hair behind Neku's ear, the smirk seemingly growing. "That was bothering me" he provided under his breath in way of explanation and relaced his hands back under his chin, safely tucked away as he continued staring, as if fascinated by his 'friend'.

The simple, overfriendly action had pulled out the safety pin from the grenade of Neku's anger. That is to say, he blew his top. Self control gone, Neku was determined to make sure Joshua was caught in his inevitable explosion. He slammed his hands on the flimsy table and in doing so, accidentally splattered Joshua's beloved noodles all over the both of them as the soup dripped onto an unoccupied chair but Neku was beyond caring.

"_You_, are bothering _me_!" he hollered, attempting to leap over the piece of furniture wedged between them. "I've had it with--!" Misfortune was on the menu today, for when Neku had given in to his violent little voice attempted to throttle the Composer; he caught his leg on his chair and tripped.

Joshua frowned, his smug demeanor vanishing as the steaming hot noodles now encased him. Wonderful, first he was freezing and wet, and now he was drenched in delicious ramen, probably burnt, and somewhat sticky...

"...Wonderful," Joshua murmured, surprisingly not losing his cool as he looked wearily at his arm covered in noodles. He frowned deeply and then back to Neku, who had, yes, tripped again.

With a sigh, and a glare shot to any onlookers, the Composer arose from his seat, swiped a few noodles off, found Neku's wrist, tugged the boy upwards, and began dragging him not-so-gently towards the bathroom to clean up.

Neku followed like a dejected child, his hot-head rage at Joshua and shred of dignity having fled hand in hand and then evaporated. He glanced meekly at the back of Joshua's ramen-sodden hair and felt guilt prick at his insides and he directed his gaze back at the ground. The pair continued in a stifled silence. Neku berated himself for his immature and rather pathetic display. From the almost painful grip Joshua had on his wrist, he could tell that he was definitely furious.

A sudden thought caused a lump to rise up to his throat. What if the Composer decided that he had better things to do that to hang around a stupid brat? Though he would never admit it aloud, he did enjoy spending time with his former partner, as rare as it was. He shouldn't have overreacted.

"'m sorry…" he murmured.

Joshua, to be frank, wasn't _that_ upset...sure, he was ticked off that he now had every single possible substance in the entire building on him, but apart from that...he was as stoic as usual.

"Don't apologize, it makes you seem weak," Joshua mused and brought Neku to the bathroom, not looking over his shoulder as he did such. Once in there, he deftly locked the door and released Neku's wrist. The Composer walked over the mirror, frowning at his rather...horrid appearance. "This is going to be amusing." he murmured to himself and touched his head before looking to Neku.

"Shirt off," he instructed with no real emotion.

Neku stared at the other boy in apprehension, taking in his sticky hair and less than amused expression. He sort of wanted for the smug, taunting one back. "R-Right," he acquiesced, turning his back on Joshua to buy some time to will away the flush that was trying its best to make his ears glow. He tucked his fingers into the hem of his large turtleneck; briefly frowning at how they adhered together, and tugged it over his head, in doing so, had inadvertently given Joshua a good view of his back. He struggled with the soiled garment for about a second before his artful mass of carefully gelled spikes escaped from their confines.

Joshua was busy unbuttoning his ruined shirt and placing it on the counter to clean up when he paused, noticing Neku out of the corner of his eye. His fingers held his own shirt, carefully putting it on the counter, as he watched the other, shimmering eyes becoming a shade darker.

"You're so skinny, Neku," he giggled, the smirk returning as he turned his attention back to his shirt.

Neku felt one of his eyebrows involuntarily give a twitch at the remark. Skinny? He rounded on Joshua in offense but the protest died on his lips when the sight of the Composer's pale, creamy skin flooded his vision. He turned back around and with some effort adapted an unaffected tone, "You're the one to talk. You're the definition of scrawny." After all, Neku's first impression of him was that he was a puny, delicate little kid.

"That's what you think," Joshua answered with a light giggle, turning his attention yet again to his shirt as he reached for a towel to dampen. "It'd be better if we could shower...but the engineers of this place probably weren't expecting someone like you to cause such a mess," he sighed heavily, towel rubbing at the splotches on his shirt.

Neku reverted back to his calming techniques, sucking in a deep breath until his cheeks puffed up and then slowly exhaling. He stayed quiet and ran his shirt under the tap a couple sinks over from where Joshua was standing, figuring that he could just wring it and wear it out, slightly damp. Once the color from the soup had faded away somewhat, he set it aside and began splashing water onto his face and hair, sighing as well when his pointy hair began to droop.

"You look so adorable with your hair like that, Neku. So innocent" Joshua hummed as he splashed his own hair and shirt, watching the other constantly out of the corner of a calculating eye. His smirk never faded, but it did go from smug and indifferent into something a yoctogram lighter. Regardless, Joshua continued rinsing his hair, frowning at how it was now completely wet, but clean, and ho w it clung to his bare shoulders and face.

Neku spluttered, having splashed too much water on his face and accidentally swallowed some of it. He had been caught off guard, though he really shouldn't be surprised; it _was_ Joshua after all. He gave the other boy a baleful glare the lethalness of which was greatly undermined by his soaking hair that obscured his eyes. He looked away quickly since, of its own accord, the glare began boldly tracing the descent of a bead of water down Joshua's neck. He had been doing a lot of that lately.

Joshua laughed quietly under his breath in response to the reaction he received. His gaze grazed over Neku's form briefly before spotting a little straggler noodle. With a snicker, Joshua set down the damp towel he was using to clean his shirt. Wordlessly, the Composer reached out to Neku, pale hand slipping down the expanse of his wet neck to snag the dangling noodle that rested there and toss it aside.

"Looks better on you than in the bowl," he giggled promptly afterwards.

Neku reacted by promptly taking a step back and clamping a hand down on where Joshua's had lingered as if he had placed an especially poisonous spider there. The spot tingled but not unpleasantly. "S-Shit, next time just tell me and I'll get it myself!" The voice that came out was dangerously close to a whine. He glanced downward and groaned as he remembered that stains showed up particularly clearly on white shorts. He quickly unbelted and unbuttoned them, mindful of Shiki's careful sowing and stripped them off, intent on getting them under the water as fast as possible.

Joshua's lips curled up into a larger smirk at once. Casually, he leaned against the counter, wet hair cascading over his shoulders as he let his shirt air-dry.

"My, my, Neku. Taking your pants off on the first date? You certainly are a wild thing," he cooed and feigned a schoolgirl blush, looking away with a snicker under his breath.

Neku paused in his washing and fixed the Composer with a look of incredulous disdain, "We are _not_ on a date." Then he proceeded to valiantly ignore the silver-haired boy, finding salvation from any discomforting thoughts through the rhythmic motions of scrubbing his clothes.

"Hm...you should have been a dancer, Neku," Joshua decided, propping up his elbow onto the counter. His eyes danced along the other boy's moving frame, slightly enthralled by the flowing of his joints. "You have such feminine hips and sensual ways of moving them. I bet you could be the focus of many...dreams," he stated knowingly, as if he had some sort of survey in his hand that bore his evidence.

Now, what could one possibly say to something like that? "I do _not_ have feminine hips!" Neku growled, feeling rather affronted. His knuckles were turning white as his fingers abused his wet clothing. He sneered, sarcastic, "and I suppose you know all about those dreams?"

"Oh, I'm an expert on those dreams--how can I not be?" he hummed and twirled a strand of hair around on his finger, shaking his head. "I suppose I was right, you are the vocal one. Lovely" And to add to that rather bizarre statement, the Composer gave a flutter of his eyes.

"I…er…" Neku yanked his sodden outfit from the sink and haphazardly wrung them out. Though his shirt had become quite wrinkled and was still rather damp, Neku proceeded to shove it over his head. He needed to get the hell out of here before he started losing his sanity as well. "Yeah, I, um, it was fun, and I'm, uh, going to go home now!" he stammered, feeling more red that he ever had, hell bent on avoiding the Composer for the next month. Or year. Or _until he died again._

Joshua eyed Neku and slipped on his shirt as well, frowning at the smell of ramen that still lingered with it. The smell of Neku would have been better.

"Aw, and end our bonding time? Neku, that's rather rude. At least invite me back to your place so there'll be a dead day," he huffed sarcastically.

"Oh, uh, sorry, I'm busy," Neku said unconvincingly as he hopped unsteadily on one foot, trying to get his shorts back on, his movements made clumsy with haste. "Maybe some other time," he managed without sincerity. Not anytime soon, he hoped.

Joshua arched a brow. "Neku..." he stated slowly, calculatingly. "Are you trying to...avoid me, my dear proxy?"

Casually, he sauntered over to where Neku was and extended his hand, gingerly letting his pale fingertips glide under Neku's chin to tilt it upwards, his violet eyes glittering furtively.

Neku was sure that Joshua could feel the heat radiating from his cheeks. He edged backwards to try to dislodge the hand, but to no avail. "Of course not! Why would I avoid you?"

"Seems like you're in a rush to be rid of me, Neku," Joshua pointed out indifferently, fingers stroking under the boy's chin as a owner would to their pet. His eyes continued shimmering with the same luster as from before.

If Neku wasn't uncomfortable before, he certainly was now. "…" he said, staring slightly up at Joshua with wide eyes, reminiscent of a wild deer crossing a highway, soon to be a smear on the concrete.

Joshua arched a brow. "What's wrong, Neku? At a loss for words?" he wondered, fingers continuing their gentle stroking,

"…" replied Neku, proving his point. He let out a strangled cross between a squeak and a yelp, threw himself backwards, only to meet the bathroom door. His hand groped for the handle, only belatedly realizing that Joshua had locked the door and he was much too frazzled at the moment to figure out how to unlatch it.

The look on Joshua's face was priceless. It was a mixture between a look of shock, amusement, satisfaction, and a hint of something more...something feral, even. The Composer chuckled inaudibly under his breath and walked over to the door, easily pressing their bodies flush. His gaze met Neku and he simply smirked, eying him wordlessly.

"It's locked, dear" he stated knowingly into the other's ear, reaching behind Neku to simply undo the lock before stepping away from the other completely, rather innocently.

Neku's breath hitched at their sudden closeness. Without him realizing, he had started panting as if having just ran a marathon. He stared into deep amethyst eyes, marveling at how he never noticed how beautiful they looked up close. Then he blinked rapidly trying to dispel the strange turn of his thoughts, and shifted, trying to reach the now unlocked handle and froze, suddenly very aware of their current position.

Joshua coyly moved his hand forwards again, letting his fingertips gently touch his proxy's face. "Nervous, Neku?" he wondered, voice laced with smug sarcasm and utter enjoyment as he let his index finger trial along the other's neck. But, beneath that mile-deep surface was a rather...soft tone.

The furious red color of Neku's cheeks slowly faded into a light dusting of pink, the swirling turmoil of his thoughts were also settling. Neku looked, really looked at Joshua, the Composer, his partner, and his _friend_ and calmed. "No," he said. He hesitated. "I trust you."

Joshua remained close to Neku for a moment longer. "Good," he breathed gently, fingers falling away as he offered another smirk, though this one was mingled with the remnants of a smile. But he'd never admit to that. Nope, never. "So, considering you trust me, care to show me to your house?"

The sudden breaking of the rather sappy mood earned Joshua a twitch. "NO!" Neku snarled.

Joshua laughed to himself and ever so gently brushed his lips against the corner of Neku's before pulling away. "Whatever you say, Neku," he hummed and proceeded to wrench the door open despite Neku's body being there. He tossed the other a combination of a wink and a grin before leaving the bathroom all together.

Neku stayed standing in the bathroom for a full minute before a random man slammed the door open again and cursed him for being in the way. Neku quickly ran out before anything else untoward happened. A quick glance around confirmed that Joshua was no where in sight. The boy headed home, not particularly disappointed because something told him that the Composer would be there when he arrived. Most likely hiding behind the door of his bedroom.


End file.
